Alexias a young Athenian of good family grows up just as the Peloponnesian War is drawing to a close. The adult world he enters is one in which the power & influence of his class have been undermined by the forces of war & more & more Alexias finds himself drawn to the controversial teachings of Sokrates. Among the great thinkers followers Alexias meets Lysis & the two youths become inseparable wrestling together in the palaestra journeying to the Olympic Games & fighting in the wars against Sparta. On the great historical canvas of famine siege & civil conflict their relationship captures vividly the intricacies of classical Greek culture. ...

Last Orders is intended to assist anyone & everyone. It deals with that perennial taboo the subject of death. It is not a will nor should it be considered as such. It is however the essential guide to producing your Letter of Wishes & which once completed correctly should save incalculable amounts of stress to those you leave behind & take most if not all of the guesswork out of the administration of an estate. It will offer a vast amount of helpful information about whom your executors should contact the funeral you would wish for your finances your belongings & even your pets. This book is simple yet comprehensive. Its usefulness cannot be overstated. You may not feel you need such a book but consider this scenario: Imagine your child sibling or friend is executor to your will. When the sad time comes to wind up your estate where would they start? Would they be able for example to answer the following questions: Who do you wish to have informed of your passing? Is there a family cemetery plot & where is the paperwork to support that? Where are the deeds to your house? Where is your will? Have you registered as an organ donor? Who has spare sets of keys to your house? Who knows the code to your burglar alarm? Or does your home have a safe? Who is to take care of your pet poodle Pandora? Equally important who do you not want to take care of Pandora??? There are over 100 simple but pertinent questions which need to be answered by you in Last Orders. Those answers will eradicate doubt & offer clarity to the executors of your will & those you leave behind. In researching Last Orders Patricia C Byron consulted with solicitors funeral directors the Society of Trust & Estate Practitioners The Law Society MENCAP but perhaps most telling of all is that she has personal knowledge & experience of administering estates. Since its launch in the Spring of 2010 & following the author being interviewed on the BBCs Radio 4 Womans Hour Last Orders sold out & went to reprint. It has since become a staple item for those wishing to put their affairs in order. Along with the general public there are now law firms within the UK Legal 500 using Last Orders for their Will-making clients as well as members of the Society of Trusts & Estate Practitioners estate planners & independent financial advisors. ...

Four men once close to Jack Dodds a London butcher meet to carry out his peculiar last wish: to have his ashes scattered into the sea. For reasons best known to herself Jack's widow Amy declines to join them. On the surface the tale of a simple if increasingly bizarre day's outing Last Orders is Graham Swift's most poignant exploration of the complexity & courage of ordinary lives. Last Orders confirms his reputation as one of the great contemporary chroniclers of landscape & memory' Observer His finest book to date; emotionally charged & technically superb' Times Literary Supplement Inspired.. . His finest novel yet' Guardian A triumph' Sunday Times Tragic comic & wonderfully compassionate' Daily Mail ...

Charity Mupanga is the widowed owner of Harrods International Bar (and Nightspot)
- a favourite meeting place for the movers &
...

Having seen a depressed polar bear in the zoo Grandfather & his dog Roo set off on an expedition to find the last polar bears. After a treacherous journey on HMS Unsinkable they reach Walrus Bay & the fun really starts. Howling wolves & terible snowstorms delay the start of their trek & when theyre on the way their tent is blown away by the fierce winds. They struggle on hungry & cold to the top of Great Bear Ridge where they see the polar bears at last. ...

Physically & psychologically bruised by her encounter with the killer Chandonne Dr Kay Scarpetta has to leave her home in the hands of the police team investigating the attack. She finds shelter with an old friend Anna Zenner but it is not the haven of security she needs when she discovers that Anna has been sub-poenaed to appear before a Grand Jury which is investigating Scarpetta for murder. Kay knows she is being framed & she also knows she can trust no-one. Meanwhile it appears that Chandonne killed a woman in New York before his murderous spree in Virginia but when Scarpetta looks more closely into that case with the NY prosectuor Jaime Berger proof of his guilt is far from certain
- in fact she begins to believe that he may not be the perpetrator of any of the crimes he is accused of. As she follows the forensic trail to the real killer she gradually realises that someone has been spinning a web for years with the aim of entrapping her. Who is it & why are they so desperate to be rid of her? Visit the author's own website on www.patricia-cornwell.com
...

Beatrice was the last child born to Queen Victoria & Prince Albert. Her father died when she was four & as Matthew Dennison relates Victoria came to depend on her youngest daughter absolutely but she also demanded from her complete submission. It is an enthralling story not just of a mother/daughter relationship but of a Queen & subject relationship. Beatrice succumbed to her mothers obsessive love so that by the time she was in her late teens she was her constant companion & running her mothers office which meant that when Victoria died her daughter became literary executor a role she conducted with teutonic thoroughness. She edited & bowdlerised her mothers Journals that cover 70 years & where possible her voluminous correspondence. Although Victoria tried to prevent Beatrice even so much as thinking of love her guard slipped when Beatrice was 29. She met Liko Prince Henry of Battenberg & fell in love. Beatrice however did not end up simply as a wife & mother. She loved music & composed a military march which remains in the repertoire of British regimental bands she sang & she painted. Matthew Dennison draws on extensive new material to restore Princess Beatrice to her rightful place as a key figure in the Victorian dynasty. ...

When Penny Moon is banished from Fleet Street to resurrect an ex-pat magazine on the French Riviera the worst news is yet to come. Her partner will be David Villers the man she once tried
- & humiliatingly failed
- to seduce. But when she arrives at the Riviera she is surprised to find that instead of the usual headaches & frustrations of restarting a magazine all that should be impossible is easy. Then quite unexpectedly she meets Christian Mureau a mysterious & elusive man who is wanted by the FBI & her curiosity is instantly clouded by passion. Swept along by the glamor & intrigue of Mureau's life & increasingly affected by David's charm & humor Penny finds her loyalties as mixed as her feelings. Feelings which lead her deeper & deeper into a web of love & deceit towards the terrifying consequences of two men's crimes
- & beyond...


...

Lawrence Anthony's South African game reserve is home to many animals he has saved from a remarkable herd of elephants to a badly behaved bushbaby called George. Described as 'the Indiana Jones of conservation' when one of his rhinos was brutally slaughtered for her horn he didn't hesitate to lead an armed response against the poachers. Then he learned that there were only a handful of northern white rhinos left in the wild living in an area of the Congo controlled by the infamous Lord's Resistance Army & soon to be hunted into extinction. Lawrence knew he had to take action. What followed was an extraordinary adventure as he headed into the jungle to negotiate with the rebels while battling to save his own animals from terrible drought & to save the eyesight of his beloved elephant matriarch Nana. The Last Rhinos is peopled with unforgettable characters both human & animal & is a sometimes funny sometimes moving always exciting read. ' Anthony was a charismatic figure whose life combined Gerald Durrell-esque animal antics with Wilbur Smith bush heroics.. .a rattling read with an urgent message' BBC Wildlife Magazine ...

Lawrence Anthony's South African game reserve is home to many animals he has saved from a remarkable herd of elephants to a badly behaved bushbaby called George. Described as 'the Indiana Jones of conservation' when one of his rhinos was brutally slaughtered for her horn he didn't hesitate to lead an armed response against the poachers. Then he learned that there were only a handful of northern white rhinos left in the wild living in an area of the Congo controlled by the infamous Lord's Resistance Army & soon to be hunted into extinction. Lawrence knew he had to take action. What followed was an extraordinary adventure as he headed into the jungle to negotiate with the rebels while battling to save his own animals from terrible drought & to save the eyesight of his beloved elephant matriarch Nana. The Last Rhinos is peopled with unforgettable characters both human & animal & is a sometimes funny sometimes moving always exciting read. ' Anthony was a charismatic figure whose life combined Gerald Durrell-esque animal antics with Wilbur Smith bush heroics.. .a rattling read with an urgent message' BBC Wildlife Magazine ...